KUALA LUMPUR: The FBM KLCI trended lower over the morning session as profit-taking picked up ahead of the General Election.

At 12.30pm, the key index was down 9.13 points to 1,454.87. There were 450 decliners compared with 281 gainers.

Trading volume was 1.6 billion shares valued at RM800.69mil.

Blue chips on the FBM KLCI were broadly lower with loss seen across sectors.

Maybank dipped two sen to RM8.57, Public bank fell two sen to RM4.36 CIMB shed six sen to RM5.43 and Hong Leong Bank lost six sen to RM20.58.

Tenaga Nasional was down eight sen to RM8.32, Sime Darby Plantation slid six sen to RM4.40 and IHH lost four sen to RM5.95.

Among actives, Advance Synergy was down 1.5 sen to 12.5 sen, Borneo Oil was unchanged at two sen and XOX fell 0.5 sen to two sen.

Meanwhile, major Asian markets were mixed as investors reacted to China’s easing of Covid lockdown measures.

Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.1% to 28,001, South Korea’s Kospi was flat at 2,475 while China’s composite index rose 1.3% to 3,122.

IN Hong Kong, the Hang Seng jumped 3.6% to 18,257 while Australia’s ASX200 dipped 0.1% to 7,136.